Medium-range ballistic missile

As a medium-range missile is called in German speaking military ballistic missiles with a range 800-5500 km. They serve primarily as a carrier agent for nuclear weapons and are among the sub-strategic nuclear weapons. This review was carried out by the U.S. and the Soviet Union or Russia, because medium-range missiles pose due to their shorter compared to ICBMs reach for both countries because of its geographical location significantly less of a threat.

According to internationally accepted classification fall two classes of ballistic missiles in this area:

  • MRBMs ( Medium Range Ballistic Missiles ) for medium-range missiles medium range 800-2399 km, 1000-2700 km earlier
  • IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile ) for medium-range missiles greater range 2400-5499 km, 2700-5500 km earlier

They included, among others, the U.S. Pershing II, the Soviet SS -20 and the French S2 or S3. In connection with the NATO Double-Track Decision (often called the "Retrofit Decision") were often BGM -109 Tomahawk cruise missiles assigned to the medium-range missiles, although they do not fly on ballistic paths and have no rocket propulsion, but jet propulsion. Therefore, they are not missiles.

However, the Tomahawk have similar ranges as medium-range missiles, short reaction times and high accuracy. Your objective approach time is much higher than that of medium-range missiles that reach multiple supersonic speed at subsonic speed. They were stationed at the end of the Cold War for a few years on German territory. Since the early 1980s, therefore, was in the Federal Republic, the terms' Pershing II and Cruise Missile " consistently.

The INF Treaty of 1987 between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the abolition of this category of nuclear weapons in NATO and the Warsaw Pact area.

For a list of the international classification of ballistic missiles, see: ground -to-ground missiles.

References

  • INF Treaty
  • Short -range missile
  • List of nuclear ground - to-ground missiles
RSD-10 Pioneer Tomahawk (missile) Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty Surface-to-surface missile Short-range ballistic missile
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